Producer: Atlantis
Retail Price: £1.99
Author: Nigel Edwards

Well it's far into the future and the Americans and Russians are still going at it hammer and sickle. Now the Soviets have developed a new MIG Starfighter, a highly dangerous and sophisticated weapon currently being constructed in a secret factory deep within the Siberian wastes. For extra security the plane has been split into different modules and scattered throughout different workshops. With the MIG spread over such a large security complex it's going to take a real American super hero to infiltrate the factory and steal the parts of the plane. Or someone really stupid.

The security system within the factory is mainly based around a colour coded card/lock system. At any one time a data card and a lock card can be carried. Holding a lock key that matches the colour of a door grants you access to the region behind it. In the higher security sections an appropriately coloured data card is also needed to open coloured doors.

Cyborg guards patrol areas of the factory complex, blindly following their pre-ordained paths. Contact with a guard causes one of the four micro batteries running your protective suit to lose a third of its power and you return to the start of the current screen. If all four batteries are out of action, the environment stabilisers in your suit pack up and you expire.

The factory itself is made from a series of rooms each with a number of gantries and walkways making up the scenery. There aren't any ladders connecting the thoroughfares but one way transporter beams serve a similar purpose. These appear in the form of arrows in the platform floors. Whichever way the arrow points is the way you're transported if you stand over it and press the activate button. The transportation is immediate but it's worth waiting before transporting for any cyborgs that may be trotting over the landing pad to get out of the way.

Stealthy super secret agent that you are, your actions include walking left and right along gangways and activating objects - you don't have a gun, so cunning rather than violence is called for.

Most factory chambers contain a couple of main doors that connect with other parts of the complex. Travel through one of these portals and another chamber flicks into view. The all important sections of the MIG fighter are shown as flashing squares. Guide your guy over one of these and a small detail of the overall MIG SF is added to a growing picture in the status area at the top of the screen.

Different pieces of lock and data card are also imbedded in the floors. Standing over one of these floor plates and pressing the activate button causes an exact electronic image to be copied into your data or lock store, wiping out the current image stored there. Sadly, you can't just wander about the factory opening all the doors and then running off to collect all the parts of the Starfighter since the doors reset and relock themselves when a room is re-entered.

Some circuitous routing is involved in completing the task, and you often have to retrace your steps in a chamber once a door has been opened, so that you can re-copy an appropriate lock or data pattern into your status area before proceeding.

COMMENTS

Control keys: Q left, W right, P activate
Joystick: Kempston
Keyboard play: very simple and no problems
Use of colour: pretty enough
Graphics: adequate
Sound: nice start tune, annoying sounds during play
Skill levels: one

A lot of my dubiousness about cheapies has been dissipated by such games as Booty, Finders Keepers and the more recent and excellent Spellbound. But I don't feel this game is in quite the same class as some of the budget games around. It's like a cross between Booty (the door opening strategy) and Frank 'n Stein (activating things to rise a level) - a combination which hasn't quite come off. The continuous tune is average, as are the graphics. Some may feel that, for the price, it is good value but I can't see Hypa Raid's appeal lasting for more than a day or two because most of the fun lies in establishing the correct route to the plane parts: hardly a daunting task! It's not all bad, but I'm sure Atlantis can do better.

This game is very similar to most other Atlantis games in that it is jolly with nothing special going for it. There's not much brain ache or arcade skill involved in playing this one, so it becomes very monotonous after a short burst of energy. The graphics are undetailed but largish and colourful with next to no colour clash. The sound is poor, with an appalling tune that you can't disable and very few spot effects. Generally Hypa Raid is a little monotonous, so I wouldn't really recommend it but on the other hand for two quid you can't go far wrong.

Hypa Raid is a strange type of game whose nearest relation seems to be Firebird's Booty. The game revolves around the player's ability to solve logic puzzles, even though at first sight it may seem like an arcade game. Most of the game involves trying the work out a feasible way of reaching the next door or lock pass. All very fine and well, but once a route has been worked out that's it, you still have to go through whatever sheets you've managed to solve previously. Maybe a function for saving out your game place would be handy. I can't say that Hypa Raid is the best budget game that I've seen, but it still may be worth having a look at if this sort of thing does appeal to you. .

Atlantis
£1.99

Platforms and ladders provide the basis for Hypa Raid, but as it's at a budget price we need not complain. It's a case of completing screens by travelling from floor to floor via teleport lifts, opening doors by walking across panels with your fire button pressed, or pushing buttons on the walls and collecting pieces of an object - all while avoiding the wandering baddies. Later rooms include booby traps, which can only be crossed when they flash blue, and teleports to other rooms.

Those with an eagle eye will have realised that I've only described this in the most abstract terms (thought I'd slipped up, huh?). That's because I quite like the game on this level. What I don't like is the plot that's been tagged on. 'The Russians have built.... a MIG Starfighter... As a top CIA Agent.... you are the natural choice to.... save the West from Russian domination.' Gee, well, it's quite a thrill to be helping Uncle Ronnie further his Star Wars project and ensure that those Reds have no counter measure.... I don't think.

Publisher: Atlantis
Programmer: Nigel Edwards
Price: £1.99
Memory: 48K
Joystick: Kempston

Avoid the Ruskies and steal the parts of their top scret MIG Starfighter from under their noses. The plot sounds a bit like Firefox, where Clint Eastwood has to steal the Russians' new MIG fighter plane.

Hypa Raid doesn't bear much resemblance to the movie; it is basically a levels game without the ladders and with a few guards and puzzles to solve for good measure.

Scattered throughout the screens are a number of pieces of the Starfighter - little blobs, in fact. You have to collect those by dodging up and down the levels in each screen, avoiding traps in the floor and opening doors and partitions.

The game is by no means original, but the puzzles require split-second timing and a little thought before making each move. You have four batteries in your protective suit, and when each of those is drained you lose a life. Being caught by the patrolling Russians and stepping on a trap causes huge energy drains, so watch out.

Buried in the floor of each level are lock cards, represented by a 'T', data cards, 'C', arrows pointing north and south which jump you from level to level and the dreaded traps. Those are coloured squares which alternate between blue and yellow. Step on a yellow one and you can say goodbye to your battery. The swap rapidly so be quick.

The access or lock cards are colour-coded and you will find that to get through a blue door to the next screen, you will first have to open a partition and on or two other colour-coded doors. As you can carry only one lock card at a time, you will have to retrace your steps two or three times. At least one level on each screen is divided by a wall shich can be opening by a key, placed in the most inaccessible part of the screen. To get to the key, you may have to open several doors.

The first three screens are easy - they don't require much though and you can whizz through them fairly quickly. After that it's a different story. As you travel deeper into the game you'll notice that each screen progressively becomes more complex with more traps and doors.

Two of the most vital parts of the Starfighter are hidden in special secure chambers. You can't just open a door to get them. The data card is needed in these cases to open the door. And, as an added precaution, the floor is booby-trapped. The data cards are not easy to find and are hidden on other screens.

There are other signs embedded in the floor - one which offers you the chance of a breather, another is a hyperport, I'll leave you to work out the rest. One useful square is a transporter, which carries you into another screen, although to get to it you still have to open a door.

Once you have collected all four parts of the MIG, make your way back to the teleport room prior to escaping. This can be very tricky as it is well hidden and there is a time limit - if you hang around, you'll get the chop.

Hypa Raid is a simple game and yet very playable.